Hades (Supergiant Games, 2020) is well known not only for its successful roguelite design and modernized Greek mythological elements but is also highly regarded for its soundtrack. With thumping bass lines, distorted guitar chords, electronic rhythmic backing tracks, and Greek and Mediterranean traditional instruments, the music of Hades sets a distinct aesthetic atmosphere for each level, boss encounter, and character interaction in the game. The soundtrack masters an effective balance between supporting game mechanics in play while acting as a functional device of the game’s narrative. This article discusses how Hades’s music resolves fears of death as an inevitable consequence of living, paradoxically one that not even immortal gods can escape, and presents the alternative possibility that there might not be permanence in death after all. Using death literature and musical study to explore themes of death and ritual, this article demonstrates how this is reflected in the soundtrack’s compositional design. Subsequently, Zagreus’s identity in the music acts as a catalyst for change on other parts of the soundtrack to ultimately support the emotional narrative of the game.
“There Is No Escape”: Hades and the Apotheosis of Death in Music
Silvia Mantilla-Wright is a queer Peruvian PhD candidate at the University of York, specializing in interdisciplinary research in video game narratives, musical empathy (music and emotion research), and music storytelling in interactive media. Their thesis, “Music as an agent: Video game narrative, musical empathy, and the music that flows between,” investigates how a player’s perception of the video game narrative and soundtrack can influence ludic interpretation and experience based on their ability to empathize with the music. Aside from ludomusicology, their interests include queer studies, thanatology, ethics, equality, diversity and inclusion in research methods, music cognition/psychology, and Latin American politics.
Silvia Mantilla-Wright; “There Is No Escape”: Hades and the Apotheosis of Death in Music. Journal of Sound and Music in Games 1 January 2025; 6 (1): 106–138. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/jsmg.2025.6.1.106
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